 Jeeps before the beach trip |
 One abandoned Jeep |
 Dust trail |
 The water fall |
 The water fall |
 Jeeps outside the hotel reception |
 Steve and the cactus |
 Julie Dickinson |
 Jeeps outside the hotel reception |
 Cactus |
 water fall |
 water fall |
 Walking back from the water fall |
 Steve and the cactus |
 View from the road |
 View of the mountains |
 Taking lunch |
To the lobby for 8:30 and seemingly loads of people wanting to take the jeep tour. However, there were two drivers and six jeeps and we did not fill all the places. We went with Tom and Beth electing not to drive.
Off the San Jose and along the river Lucy and Rosemary had found on Saturday, but this time no cows or bells. Had breakfast of fresh fruit (meloms, oranges, papaya and pineapple), fresh pastries and juices at Fernango's. Picked up lunch and off too the beach. Road they took us on had been washed away they said, so we had to drive along a soft beach. We were with Tom and Beth and got stuck, after much work, smoke and burning clutch an tires we reversed out back off the beach. Then the Jeep would not start again. Eventually abandoned that one, and split into the spare spaces on the other jeeps. With Keith driving we set across the beach again only to get stuck in the ruts. This time we were totally grounded and after much time digging out we managed to get going, while the rest of us followed on foot. Then the guide (Alfredo) managed to get his Jeep stuck below the high water mark of the beach. He seemed a bit clueless on driving on beaches, having previously tried to jack Keith's Jeep up without supporting the jack on the sand).
Now we were off again into the interior on dirt tracks and a small town called Santiago. We went up to a nature reserve, parked and walked a couple of hundred meters to view a waterfall in the distance. Back to Santiago for lunch in the village square.
We then drove back to hotel.
Casey, the American guide, said the cactus (cocone) grew only 1-2 centimetres a year, and could be 200 years old. He also said there were two species of woodpecker, (Crested and Baja).
All said we had (at least I and Rosemary) had a good time, although a bit dusty. We though expected that. It was not off really off road and if it had not been for the beach we would have been back a bit on the early side.